EU to introduce new health warning on link between smoking and blindness
We won a long running campaign this week when the European Commission formally adopted a new health warning "smoking increases the risk of blindness" to be printed on tobacco products.
Six years of campaigning
RNIB has been campaigning for the health warning to be included on tobacco packets since 2006, working behind the scenes to convince the European Commission and EU governments of the necessity to introduce this new warning. Campaigns about the link between smoking and blindness in Australia and New Zealand have shown how effective these warnings are in convincing people to give up smoking. Surveys also showed that awareness of the link between smoking and sight loss is significantly higher in Australia (77%) than in any of the other countries surveyed.
For several years, RNIB has been warning the public about the link between smoking and sight loss but many people still fail to understand the risks, so we are really pleased with the European Commission decision to listen to our concerns.
What happens now?
EU governments now have up to two years to introduce the new written health warnings on tobacco products but RNIB hopes that the UK will be among the first countries to act to help prevent avoidable sight loss. The smoking health warning is one of 14 new health warnings adopted by the European Commission.